The Prima Luce twin condo towers and Towles Garden workforce housing development face foreclosure in Fort Myers.
Developer Bob MacFarlane, who had been spearheading both projects and had used the land at Towles Garden as collateral for Prima Luce, entered March 11 with less than 48 hours to secure $36.9 million in funding to avoid foreclosure.
The properties are scheduled to go up for auction March 13.
“I’m disappointed and really frustrated with this whole thing,” Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson said. “However, I’m also an optimist. Some good will come out of this.
“We’re going to work hard with the developer to make sure we get the Towles Garden project done. That’s very important to that community, as well as the city to have that level of workforce housing available.”
MacFarlane, who could not be reached for comment, has cleared out the Prima Luce sales center in downtown Fort Myers. But he has a letter of intent and offer from an undisclosed new lender to buy the projects out of debt, said Chris Spiro of Spiro & Associates, a public relations company working on behalf of MacFarlane. Spiro said MacFarlane would have more details by the end of March 12.
If MacFarlane cannot secure the funding, this would be the second-highest foreclosure in the three years Kevin Karnes has been Lee County clerk of court, he said.
Karnes was appointed clerk by Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 11, 2022, before being elected to the position November 2022 and reelected November 2024.
An assisted living facility at 1251 Business Way in Lehigh Acres went into foreclosure at $155.5 million, Karnes said. That’s been the largest foreclosure in three years.
At $340 million in 2010, the Tarpon Point condo project in Cape Coral remains the largest foreclosure in Lee County history, Karnes said. That ended up selling for $261 million.
Prima Luce is a planned, two-tower, 220-unit, 22-story condominium complex fronting the Caloosahatchee River off First Street in Fort Myers.
“The way a traditional foreclosure works, the lender essentially has a reserve bid,” said Matt Simmons, a property appraiser at Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons. “If somebody wants to outbid that amount, which a third party could do, or the lender could decide it wants control. If you outbid the lender’s indebtedness, the lender is made whole. I expect the lender taking ownership is what is likely to happen.”
Towles Garden is a proposed 140-home subdivision geared toward workforce housing. The site is located at the corner of Veronica Shoemaker Boulevard and Edison Avenue.
Anderson said getting that project back into development would be good for the city.
“The best-case scenario is somebody who has the means to develop the property in a good way will win the auction,” Anderson said.
